Legacy of Kain nearly Complete Story
by Kain2010
Summary: *I DO NOT OWN THIS STORY IN ANYWAY SHAPE OR FORM* The Nearly Complete Story of Legacy of Kain...Enjoy


*I DO NOT OWN THIS STORY IN ANY SHAPE OR FORM*

Legacy of Kain: The (damn nearly) complete storyline

Prehistoric:

The world of Nosgoth is inhabited by two races of beings, at constant and bloody war with each other. The first are the Ancients, blue-skinned, winged beings of incredible grace and almost angelic beauty. Their perpetual nemeses are the Hylden, strange creatures completely alien of form and mind; who seem to be in league with demonic creatures from another realm. The Ancients forge a weapon known as the Reaver, a sword which drains its victims of their lifeblood as it wounds them. It is wielded by Janos Audron, a champion amongst the Ancients.

The Hylden create a strange machine called the Device. A vast underground construction, it rivals a city in size, and at its centre is a strange creature known as the Mass. This amorphous abomination seems to embody death itself, as the vile creature can destroy any other living thing by the power of thought alone. The Device is designed to channel this power, unleashing it through a magical network and thus obliterating every living thing in Nosgoth, except for the Hylden. Mercifully, the Device is never completed. Although the Mass and the mechanism of the Device are complete, the magical network is never built. The architect of the Device, a Hylden known as the Builder, is consigned to the Eternal Prison for his crimes. Here he will languish in torment for eternity, never ageing and never finding the merciful release that is death.

The Ancients create a magical edifice known as the Pillars of Nosgoth, stretching from the highest pinnacle of the heavens and descending deep into the bowels of the earth. These nine pillars embody the nine elements of the Ancients: The Mind, Conflict, Nature, Energy, Dimension, Time, Alchemy, Death, and finally Balance. These pillars strengthen the boundary between the physical world of Nosgoth and the darker, demonic realm that lies just a shadow's depth away. Each pillar is assigned a guardian from amongst the Ancients. The tenth guardian, Janos Audron, is given the Reaver. A cryptic message holds that the pillars are the lock and the Reaver the key.

The magic of the Ancients banishes the Hylden into the hell-world, but as they retreat they unleash a curse upon the Ancients, afflicting them with a dire thirst for the blood of the living. The Ancients become vampires. Unable to reproduce and so continue their species, the Ancients slowly die off. As they do so, a new race arises in the world: Humans.

The era of the Sarafan:

The surviving Ancients feed from this new race, and as they do so, the first true vampires are created. A half-dead soul in a half-living body, the vampire is a creature of night and shadows. One of the first and most powerful is Vorador, created by Janos Audron, still the Reaver guardian. The humans loathe vampires and regard them as abominations. The Sarafan priesthood is formed, humans who devote their lives to ridding the world of the vampire plague.

As the Ancient guardians die, the pillars select new guardians from the new race of humans. These are the strongest warriors and most powerful sorcerers in the world, known as the Circle of Nine.

Eventually, of all the Ancients, only Janos Audron remains alive, sustained by his guardianship of the Reaver and his obligation to pass it on to a mythical saviour or messiah. Even as this saviour, an otherworldly creature armed with a soul-devouring weapon known as the Wraith Blade, arrives from a future era of Nosgoth to claim the Reaver, the Sarafan reach Janos's retreat. Janos's heart is torn from his still-living body, and concealed within the Sarafen fortress. The Reaver too is taken from him, and placed also in the Sarafan fortress. The wraith pursues the Sarafan back to their fortress, where he encounters the Time guardian Moebius. Moebius had foreseen these events and had planned for them. Using his staff to disable the Wraith Blade, he tricks the spectral creature into taking up the Reaver as his weapon, and then flees, leaving the wraith to fight the Sarafan elite warriors: Melchiah, Zephon, Rahab, Dumah, Turel and Raziel. When the last of these has fallen, Moebius releases his hold on the Wraith Blade. It coils itself around the Reaver, the two blades become one, and the bloodthirst of the Reaver and the darker soul-thirst of the Wraith Blade take over. The spirit of the vampire wraith is drawn into the steel shell of the Reaver. The blood-drinking blade becomes imbued with a hunger for the souls of its victims. The Soul Reaver is created.

When Vorador discovers the death of his sire, he travels to the Sarafan fortress and shatters the defences. He discovers six members of the Circle of Nine, and mercilessly slaughters them. Malek, the guardian of Conflict, protector of the Circle, and leader of the Sarafan arrives and fights Vorador. For all his strength, Malek is defeated, and Vorador stands poised to slay him. Instead, the ancient vampire leaves him alive and flees, to go into hiding.

The two other surviving members of the Circle, Moebius and Mortanius, Guardians of Time and Death respectively, hold Malek responsible for failing to save the Circle. Mortanius issues the punishment that Malek's body should be destroyed and his spirit fused into his battle armour to serve the Circle for all eternity. As new Guardians are born to replace those who died by Vorador's hand, the Sarafan Crusades end.

Pre- Blood Omen:

At the earliest point in the Blood Omen storyline, the Circle of Nine consists of: Nupraptor, Guardian of the Mind; Malek, Guardian of Conflict; Bane, Guardian of Nature; DeJoule, Guardian of Energy; Azimuth, Guardian of Dimensions; Moebius, Guardian of Time; Anarcrothe, Guardian of Alchemy; Mortanius, Guardian of Death; and Ariel, Guardian of Balance. The land is ruled by a kind and benevolent young monarch, King William the Just.

Two travellers from a future era arrive in Nosgoth, by means of Moebius's Chronoplast chamber. They are the wraith-creature that so long ago was destroyed by Moebius; and a vampire lord, the most powerful vampire ever to walk the earth. They seek each other's annihilation. Having seen that the vampire lord will one day destroy him, Moebius speaks with the vampire wraith, and counsels him for the battle with his enemy. The wraith discovers the Soul Reaver within the Sarafan fortress, and picks it up. His own weapon, the Wraith Blade, coils itself around the Soul Reaver; and as the two come together the fabric of reality is stretched almost to breaking point. The Wraith Blade, once nothing more than a weapon, become a sentient entity, ravenous for the souls of the living. The wraith replaces the Soul Reaver in its casket, and uses his newly-strengthened weapon to slay his vampiric enemy. The mightiest of all vampires is destroyed. The wraith, vowing to seek out Janos Audron, returns to the Chronoplast device and travels to a different age of Nosgoth.

The Circle of Nine, once thought so incorruptible, is infiltrated. Mortanius is possessed by a demon known as Hash'ak'gik during a necromantic ritual. The demon takes over the mind of Mortanius, and arranges for Ariel to be murdered. This drives her lover, Nupraptor, to madness. His psychic scream tears through the sanity of the rest of the circle and shatters their reason. They begin to use their powers for evil means, rather than to preserve Nosgoth. Even Kain, the new Balance Guardian, is corrupted even though he is still in his mother's womb. The Guardians are scattered across Nosgoth. Nupraptor seals himself in his retreat, sewing his eyes shut so he cannot look on a world he deems beyond redemption. Anarcrothe, Bane and DeJoule head to the furthest northern mountains of Nosgoth and combine their powers to create a land of corruption and chaos - Dark Eden. Azimuth sets up a fortress within the abandoned cathedral of Avernus, and uses her skills to summon demons from the depths of Hell to serve her. Malek retreats to his bastion atop a plateau, and merely awaits the end. Mortanius is perhaps the least corrupted, and communes with the spirit of Ariel to concoct plans to save the Circle. However, most troubling are the affairs of the Time-streamer Moebius.

Using the Chronoplast time-streaming device to view the twisting strings of the past and future worlds, he discovers an ancient creature known as the Elder God, lurking in a tomb beneath the pillars. Under the directions of the Elder, he conceives a plan to destroy the vampire plague forever. He takes the Soul Reaver from the abandoned Sarafan fortress, travels back in time, and presents it as a gift to the young King William the Just. He becomes the monarch's advisor, and whispers words of treason and treachery in his ear. The King becomes paranoid, and eventually abdicates the throne and travels to the wastelands of Nosgoth. There he raises an army bent on returning to Nosgoth and destroying it. The benevolent King William the Just becomes the psychotic tyrant known as the Nemesis. King Ottmar takes his place on the throne, and as he learns of the threat posed by the Nemesis he raises an Army of Hope to defend his homeland.

Mortanius and Ariel construct a plan to destroy the corrupted Circle of Nine and restore order to the world. Mortanius hires a group of mercenaries to seek out and slay the young Balance Guardian Kain, who is as yet unaware of his destiny. Though a skilled warrior, Kain is overcome by sheer weight of numbers and killed. His soul is flung into the burning abyss of Hell. Mortanius engages in a necromantic ritual to commune with the dead spirit of Kain, and gives him a chance of salvation. He will restore Kain to life so that he might have revenge on his killers. Kain accepts without considering the consequences.

Blood Omen:

"The Necromancer Mortanius offered me a chance for vengeance. And like a fool, I jumped at his offer without considering the cost.

Nothing is free.

Not even revenge."

Restored to life as a Vampire and gifted with armour, a sword, and artefacts of magic including the heart of Janos Audron, which can restore vampiric unlife, Kain seeks out the men who slew him. He massacres them with ease, delighting in his new-found strength, and accepting his bloodthirst as a gift. Under Mortanius's instructions, Kain travels to the Pillars to meet Ariel. She persuades him to aid her in healing Nosgoth, by slaying the deranged Circle of Nine and restoring the pillars so that new guardians might be born. Kain's first victim is Nupraptor, Guardian of the Mind. After travelling through the maze of Nupraptor's retreat and speaking with the insane servants trapped within, Kain finds Nupraptor himself. After a bloody battle, Kain severs Nupraptor's head and returns to the Pillars, clutching it as a vile trophy. Kain places the head at the foot of the Pillar of the Mind, which takes back the gift of power from Nupraptor's remains and is restored.

Kain sets out to confront the Conflict Guardian Malek, and eventually encounters him in his fortress bastion. Malek proves too strong for Kain to overcome, and the fledgling vampire flees. Realising that his quest is hopeless without guidance, he seeks out the Oracle, who instructs him to search for the last known refuge of the ancient vampire Vorador. Upon arriving at the mansion sunk deep within a morass of swamps and marshes, Kain discovers that Vorador is still - for want of a better word - alive. Vorador has long since abandoned all hope of Nosgoth ever being saved, and seems content to remain in his mansion while the world falls apart around him. However, he sees a glimmer of new hope in Kain, and provides him with advice, and a magical ring which will summon Vorador to Kain's aid should it ever be needed.

Kain sets out again, this time headed for Dark Eden in the far north. He arrives to find the landscape warped and twisted in a sickening perversion of nature. After crossing Dark Eden he reaches the castle at its blackened heart. There he discovers Anarcrothe, Bane, and DeJoule. Anarcrothe summons Malek and flees. As Malek prepares to destroy him, Kain uses his ring to summon Vorador to his aid. As Vorador and Malek continue the battle that was left unfinished centuries ago, Kain pursues and slays Bane and DeJoule. He returns to find Vorador gone and Malek's armour in ruins. Taking Malek's helm, Bane's head-dress and DeJoule's cloak, Kain returns to the Pillars and restores Conflict, Nature and Energy with the items he took from the fallen guardians.

Kain journeys to Avernus seeking the Dimension Guardian Azimuth as his quarry. When he arrives, he finds the town's inhabitants slaughtered and demons prowling the streets. He fights his way through Avernus to the cathedral. In a sealed vault he discovers the Soul Reaver, the deadliest blade in existence, and a unique suit of armour created in a forge fuelled by dying souls. He finds Azimuth, who summons a horde of demons to fight Kain. He defeats all the demons and then slays Azimuth, taking from her the artefact that she had used to see into other dimensions. He also discovers a time-streaming device, planted by Moebius for Kain to find. He returns to the pillars and restores the Dimension pillar.

Ariel tells Kain that his quest for vengeance must wait. The whole of Nosgoth is under threat from the fanatical armies of the Nemesis, and that only King Ottmar of Willendorf has an army powerful enough to stop them. Kain must journey to Willendorf and persuade Ottmar to save Nosgoth. Upon reaching Willendorf and finding the King, Kain learns that Ottmar has lost the will to live. On his daughter's birthday, he proclaimed a contest to see who could construct the finest toy for his daughter. The contest was won by a strange, wizened old man called Elzevir, who made a doll which was an exact miniature replica of Ottmar's daughter. Elzevir requested a single lock of hair from Ottmar's daughter as his reward for winning the contest. This seemingly harmless gift was Ottmar's undoing, as Elzevir used it to trap the soul of Ottmar's daughter in the doll, leaving her body a lifeless husk. Ottmar went into mourning, and gave up all hope of defeating the Nemesis.

Hearing this, Kain travels to the home of Elzevir the dollmaker, and slays the strange magician. He is able to restore the soul to King Ottmar's daughter. Ottmar rejoices once again, and agrees to lead his army against the Nemesis in a bid to save the land. At the Battle of the Last Stand, the army of Hope and the Army of the Nemesis meet in bloody combat. The tide of battle turns against Ottmar's troops, and Kain is caught in the middle of the battle, about to be cut down by the soldiers of the Nemesis. In a last chance to save his life, he uses the time-streaming device to cast himself fifty years into the past, to a time when King William the Just still rules the land and the Nemesis is not even a sinister dream. Realising that he can change history and thus prevent the Nemesis ever being created, Kain travels to the palace and encounters the young King William the Just. William tells Kain that he has been warned by Moebius of a vampire assassin sent to slay him. As Kain draws the Soul Reaver to fight William, the King draws his own weapon - also the Soul Reaver. As two blades, unique by their very nature, meet in combat, a paradox is created and weakens the fabric of reality. William's Soul Reaver breaks in two, and the time-stream is shattered as Kain changes history by killing William. Moebius's plans play out perfectly. Kain uses the time-streaming device to return to his own time. The personal guards of King William find their monarch slain, the blood drained from his body by a vampire's fangs. The people of the land vow vengeance on the vampire assassin, and turn to Moebius for guidance. The devious time-streamer ignites a genocidal crusade against vampires, causing more carnage than the Sarafan crusades ever could. Moebius takes the shattered halves of the Soul Reaver and places them on the sarcophagus of King William, to await the arrival of the wraith-creature, whose magic will restore the broken blade.

Kain returns to the present, but a different present to what he remembers. King William died as a saint before he could ever become the Nemesis. A crusade of annihilation commenced, and the vampires all but wiped out. Kain arrives back in his time to see the last surviving vampire, Vorador, executed by Moebius. The vampire hunters attack Kain but he defeats them, and then moves to fight Moebius. The time-streamer summons three powerful opponents to fight Kain - A creature from the past, a creature from the present, and from the future an older version of Kain himself. Kain defeats the opponents and then faces Moebius himself. The time-streamer offers no resistance, and Kain slices his head from his body in vengeance for the vampires he had guillotined. Taking Moebius's hourglass, the symbol of his power, Kain returns to the pillars and restores Time.

He overhears Mortanius and Anarcrothe arguing, Anarcrothe having realised that it was Mortanius's wish that the Circle be destroyed by Kain. Mortanius kills Anarcrothe, and then Kain reveals his presence to the necromancer. In what seems to be the final battle of Kain's ordeal, the two masters of death, the Vampire and the Necromancer, meet in combat. Mortanius tells Kain that even if he falls it will leave one life left for Kain to take. As Mortanius dies, the demon Hash'ak'gik is released from his body.

The demon speaks with Kain, telling him that it had planned the destruction of Nosgoth, and that Kain was but a pawn in his game of death. Kain refuses to submit, and launches a hate-fuelled attack on the demon, eventually banishing it back to Hell. Kain restores the pillars of Death and Alchemy with Mortanius's death orb and Anarcrothe's scales. Ariel appears and tells Kain that the last guardian, the Guardian of Balance, must die for the pillars to be restored. Kain realises that he is the ninth guardian, and he is faced with a terrible choice: To die and so save the world, or stay alive and rule Nosgoth in its damnation?

Thanks to Moebius, Kain is the last vampire left alive, and so if he dies Nosgoth will be left to the humans. After seeing the horrific brutality that humans are capable of, Kain finally accepts the dead Vorador's argument: That vampirism is a gift, not a curse; and that vampires are dark gods whose destiny is to rule the world. Kain walks away from the pillars, which shatter like glass behind him and plunge Nosgoth into a spiral of decay and corruption. Ariel is condemned to forever haunt the pillars as an insubstantial spectre.

"Once I embraced my powers, I realised that Vorador was correct. We are gods - Dark gods. And it is our duty to thin the herd."

Pre-Blood Omen 2:

As the pillars of Nosgoth shatter and crumble, the boundary between the real world and the demon dimension is momentarily weakened. One of the strongest of the Hylden emerges from the gateway separating the two worlds. Over a period of many years, he reactivates the gateway and brings more of his kind through. He assumes the guise of a human, and travels across the seas to the walled port-city of Meridian, where he allies himself with the humans, giving them devices that exploit a new type of magic: Glyph energy. As he elevates himself to a position of power in the City, he revives the Sarafan Order under the pretext of protecting the City, but really as a means to strengthen his personal power and influence. He institutes himself as the Sarafan Lord, the leader of the new Order.

Kain somehow resurrects Vorador, who sets about creating more vampires to once again inhabit the world. Kain develops a new goal- he wishes to become the supreme ruler of Nosgoth. He recruits a legion of vampires, an army of the night who follow his command. Some of them do not wish to follow Kain. One of these is Marcus, who refuses to join with Kain's army. Kain attempts to destroy Marcus, but the younger vampire escapes, though Kain thinks him dead. Kain's dark legion marches south, crushing all who oppose them, until they come to Meridian. One of Kain's lieutenants, Sebastian, secretly allies himself with the Sarafan Lord. He leads Kain's forces into an ambush. Kain and the Sarafan Lord meet in single combat, and the Sarafan Lord somehow withstands the power of the Soul Reaver and defeats Kain, and takes the fearsome weapon as his own. Kain's army is scattered and defeated, despite a frenzied counterattack led by Kain's champion, Magnus. Kain is presumed dead.

Many of the vampires change sides and join forces with the Sarafan Lord, and most of the rest are slain. However, Vorador and a few of the other vampires, including Umah, form a resistance group within Meridian, known as the Cabal, sabotaging the Sarafan plans and working to overthrow their rule. Kain's body is recovered, and to Vorador's amazement a flicker of life still remains.

Blood Omen 2

"From the shards of tattered dreams I rose, tossed upon tides of pain that ebbed and flowed and left me chillingly awake - and, more revoltingly, alive."

Two centuries later, Nosgoth is a changed world. The Sarafan have taken control. Meridian is a decadent autocracy, ruled over by the megalomaniacal Sarafan Lord. A sect known as the Glyphwrights have installed Magical devices powered by Glyph energy across the city. Outside the fortress that Meridian has become, the world is beginning to collapse. Otherworldly demons stalk the barren landscape.

It is this world that Kain awakens to. His memory is shattered and his power greatly weakened by his centuries of deathly sleep, but he walks the world once again. He vows vengeance on those who brought about his defeat, and he swears that he will destroy the Sarafan Lord. Umah explains that the Cabal wants Kain to assassinate the Sarafan Lord and so bring down the Sarafan order, but that Kain is too weak to do this. She aids Kain in regaining some of his skills and his combat ability, and then leads him through the slum district of Meridian towards Vorador's base of operations, a place called Sanctuary. Unfortunately, as Kain and Umah prepare to cross the bridge to the Lower City, they are seen by one of the Sarafan Guards. He closes the magical ward gate, and separates the vampires, preventing Kain from crossing the bridge. Umah tells Kain to go to the Smuggler's Den and find the Smuggler's Tunnel, which will take him to the Lower City. On the way to the Smuggler's Den, he meets a human agent of the Cabal who tells him that most of the humans are desperate to throw off the despotic rule of the Sarafan. As Kain continues onwards to the smuggler's den, the human he spoke to is silently murdered by a vampire in a red cloak.

Kain locates the entrance to the subterranean section of the Smuggler's Den near an abandoned church. He finds the area has been filled with strange, steam-driven machinery and powered by Sarafan guards. He also observes the Glyphwrights speaking with a red-cloaked vampire. The vampire departs and walks onwards into the central room of the machine, and the Glyphwrights seem to disappear into thin air like ghosts. Kain makes his way through the machine to the central chamber, killing the Sarafan guards, and meets the vampire he had seen earlier. Faustus, one of the former legionnaires of his army, but now working for the Sarafan. Kain accuses Faustus of being a traitor to all vampires, and Faustus replies that he only ever served himself. Kain attacks Faustus and kills him, drinking his blood and taking a new Dark Gift.

Kain travels through the Smuggler's Tunnel to the Lower City, where he meets Umah. She tells him how to find his way to Sanctuary, and then goes to the Industrial quarter on a reconnaissance mission. Kain proceeds across the Lower City by means of the rooftops, back alleys and sewers, until he comes to an open courtyard littered with dismembered corpses. There he encounters another vampire, in armour and a blue cape. He learns that this other vampire is also working for the Sarafan.

After the other vampire leaves, on some dark errand of his own, Kain makes his way to the secret entrance to Sanctuary, where he meets Vorador. As they talk, they are interrupted by a messenger, his body covered in vicious cuts. He says that he was with Umah as she searched the Industrial Quarter, but they were attacked by Sarafan knights. He escaped, but Umah was captured and taken to the Sarafan fortress to await execution.

Kain pledges to go to the Sarafan fortress to rescue Umah, but Vorador tells him that the front entrance is far too heavily guarded, and that Kain will need to find the secret entrance. He says that the Bishop of Meridian knows the location of this entrance, and that Kain could get the information from him. Kain sets off for the manor house in the upper city where he expects the Bishop to be. On the way, he meets an old enemy - Marcus, who is now working for the Sarafan.

Marcus wishes revenge on Kain for the attempted murder centuries ago, and tells Kain that he has developed the power to control the minds of all creatures. Marcus tries to use this power to enslave Kain, but the will of the ancient vampire is far too strong for Marcus. Even so, Marcus is able to read Kain's mind, and taunts Kain by saying that by the time he reaches the Bishop of Meridian, Marcus will already have killed him. Kain pursues Marcus to the Bishop's manor, fighting with guards under the psychic influence of Marcus, where he discovers the Sarafan guards have ransacked the place looking for the Bishop. Kain speaks with the Bishop's butler, telling him he was sent by Vorador and the Cabal. The butler tells Kain that the Bishop fled to the Cathedral. Kain enters the Cathedral, but Marcus manages to get there first and when Kain arrives the Bishop is paralysed under Marcus's control. Marcus flees from Kain, who eventually corners him in the main chamber of the cathedral and kills him, absorbing another Dark Gift from his blood. The Bishop recovers and is able to guide Kain to the secret entrance to the Sarafan fortress.

Kain carves a bloody path through the fortress on his way to the tower where Umah is held. On his way, he meets an agent of the Cabal who asks him to assassinate a nobleman named Artemis, who is a traitor to the Cabal. After slaying Artemis, Kain takes the elevator up to the top floor and then out onto the rooftops, where he finds the cell guarded by a Glyph Knight. Kain kills the knight, and frees Umah, who has been weakened by her imprisonment. As they escape from the cell, they are discovered by the Sarafan Lord. Both Kain and the Sarafan Lord are amazed - the Sarafan cannot believe that Kain is still alive, and Kain is furious that his weapon, the Soul Reaver, is now in the hands of the enemy. Kain is far too weak to face the Sarafan Lord as yet, and so Umah teleports Kain and herself back to Sanctuary.

Once back in Sanctuary, Umah tells Vorador and Kain of her discovery in the Industrial Quarter. In the main factory, she found a portal leading to a place unlike anything she had ever seen before. This portal was supported by a magical artefact - the Nexus Stone. Kain has never heard of this item, and Vorador tells him of the power of the stone. It can open up a portal to any area of Nosgoth, but also has the strange property that anyone wearing the stone will be immune to the power of the Soul Reaver. Vorador also tells Kain that the Sarafan Lord was wearing this stone when he defeated Kain at the battle centuries ago. Since Kain could not harm the Sarafan Lord with the Reaver, the Lord was able to defeat him. Kain sets off for the Industrial Quarter to recover the stone.

When he arrives, he finds the Industrial Quarter under heavy guard. With use of stealth and his Dark Gifts, Kain is able to reach the central factory, and eventually discovers the Stone held in an energy shield in a room at the highest point of the factory. The vampire he spoke to earlier, in armour and a blue cloak, appears again. This time, Kain recognises him as Sebastian, the traitor who led Kain's army into a Sarafan ambush. Kain and Sebastian seek to kill each other, and when Kain appears to be winning the fight, Sebastian attempts to destroy the Nexus Stone. Kain manages to defeat Sebastian before the stone is destroyed, and promises that he will spare Sebastian's life if he tells Kain about the Nexus Stone and the Sarafan Lord's plans. Sebastian knows Kain is lying, but tells him anyway to see him suffer when he realises that the Sarafan Lord's plans cannot be overthrown. He tells Kain that the portal leads to the ancient Device created by the Hylden millennia ago, during their war against the Ancients. He tells Kain that the Sarafan Lord has reactivated the Device, and that he will use it to annihilate all opposition to he rule. With this, Sebastian' life is extinguished, and Kain takes the Nexus Stone from its energy shield. But as he does so, the machinery it powered goes into overload, and the chamber is destroyed by a massive explosion. Kain manages to leap clear, as more explosions level the factory behind him. One of Vorador's agents finds Kain unconscious, and carries him back to Sanctuary.

Vorador speaks with Kain, and counsels him about his new discovery. The only person who might know about the Device is an ancient Seer who lives in the canyons far outside the city walls. Kain leaves the city by a secret passage and travels along the road through the wilderness in search for the house of the Seer. The path is not easy, however. The main bridge has collapsed, and the only other way is through subterranean tunnels and mines that are prone to collapse. When Kain makes it through these, he finds himself in a desolate area of Nosgoth, a wasteland inhabited by strange, insectile demons from an unknown realm. Kain eventually reaches the house of the Seer, weary after the long journey and battles with the demons.

The Seer, a strange, humanoid creature resembling both the Ancients and the Hylden, and perhaps older than both, tells Kain of the evil nature of the Device. As she speaks to him, the Sarafan Lord arrives with a contingent of troops, and sets fires to burn the house of the Seer. She urges Kain to drink her blood, so that he can gain the power of telekinesis from her, and so gain entry to the Device. When he has done this, she teleports him to just outside the ground-level entrance to the Device, in the city of Meridian. She stays to face the Sarafan Lord and await her fate, but whether or not she survives is unknown.

In the upper level of the Device, Kain discovers a fearsome beast held prisoner. It speaks with him, telling him of the Hylden and the Device, and of its imprisonment to feed the Device with its life force. It tells Kain about the Device, how it was built long before the era of humankind, and how the network that channels the energy of the Device was never completed. Kain realises that the wires that transmit Glyph energy throughout the city must be this network, and that the Device is nearing completion. He learns that only the creator of the Device knows how to destroy it. The Builder languishes still in the Eternal Prison, suffering endless torment, and the creature tells Kain where to find the Eternal Prison. Kain sets out once again, headed for the desolate cliffs where the Eternal Prison holds its lunatic inmates trapped forever.

As Kain steps through the doors of the eternal prison he is greeted by one of the Prison Guardians, strangely ghostlike creatures armed with scythes, only their glowing green eyes visible beneath the hoods of their robes. The guardian tells Kain that no guests or visitors are permitted in the Prison, and that Kain must leave immediately. However, the guardians appear to be as insane as their captives, as they seal the doors behind Kain, and thus prevent him from leaving. Kain proceeds onwards into the prison, slaying the guardians who try to force him to leave, until he sees a creature that was once a vampire. Insane and driven by an uncontrollable hunger for living flesh, the deformed abomination pursues Kain through the prison, until Kain manages to cast it into a cistern of water, where it burns in agony.

Kain eventually locates the Builder, and releases him from the cell. Kain explains that he means to destroy the Device, and the Builder offers to tell him how, in exchange for the one thing he has craved throughout his millennia of imprisonment -death. Kain agrees, and the Builder tells him about the Mass that forms the corrupt heart of the Device. He tells Kain that the Mass can be poisoned by the blood of the Hylden. Kain kills the Builder, releasing him from his anguish, and drinks his blood. As the blood of the Builder flows through his veins, Kain can now poison the Mass with his blood.

Kain destroys an arcane machine within the Prison, breaking the loop in time in which the prison existed. The eternal prison is no loner eternal, and the captives eventually find the relief of death. The Prison Guardians ambush Kain as he searches for the exit, trying to kill him in vengeance for his destruction of their grand experiment. Kain slaughters them, but before he can escape from the prison, the insane vampire that he had tried to destroy earlier catches up with him. Kain fights the lunatic creature, eventually killing it by toppling a massive statue of Moebius onto it. As the lifeblood flows freely from its wounds, the psychotic vampire regains its sanity. It calls out to Kain, and tells him who it is. The mad creature is Magnus, who was once Kain's champion, defeated by the Sarafan Lord and incarcerated within the nightmarish confines of the Prison. Magnus dies of his wounds, and gives his blood to Kain. Kain absorbs a new Dark Gift from Magnus's blood. He leaves the ruins of the Eternal Prison and returns to the Device at the heart of Meridian, now prepared to destroy the Device.

As Kain journeys into the depths of the earth seeking out the living heart of the Device, he encounters the Hylden warriors, protecting their ultimate weapon. He also sees the machinery of the Device, and the living creatures entrapped in its workings. He realises that the Device must channel the life energy of these creatures to feed the Mass. He eventually reaches the central chamber that houses the Mass, and after killing the Hylden and demons that guard it, he slices a gash in his own skin and allows a few drops of his blood, mixed with that of the Builder, to fall into the vile maw of the sickening creature that is the Mass. The hideous, hell-spawned abomination is poisoned by the blood, and its death agonies shatter the workings of the Device.

When Kain escapes from the Device and returns to the cage that housed the beast that he spoke to, he finds it no longer there. In its place is a human-like creature, with blue skin, clawed hands, and wings like those of an angel. This is Janos Audron, who had fallen many millennia ago, and yet was resurrected and had since been held as a captive in the Device, his blood feeding the Mass. The centuries of torment caused him to devolve into the hideous creature that Kain encountered as he entered the device, but now Janos is restored and thirsts for revenge. He teleports himself and Kain back to Sanctuary, where he meets Vorador and explains the situation to him. Janos explains about the banishment of the Hylden many millennia ago, and that when Kain destroyed the pillars the boundary was weakened enough for the Hylden leader to break though. He tells Kain and Vorador about the Hylden Gate, the portal through which the Hylden are able to enter the world. He plans to teleport the warriors of the Vampire Resistance to the Hylden city in a bid to destroy the gate, but he discovers that the city is shielded. Someone must travel to the city via one of the transport ships that take slaves and magical devices across the seas for the rebuilding of the Hylden city. Kain and Umah travel to the docks to board one of the Sarafan transport ships.

As they arrive at the wharves, Umah attacks Kain and steals the Nexus stone. She does not trust Kain, and suspects that when he rules the world again he will destroy the Cabal as they pose a threat to his power. She takes the stone and teleports herself away, planning to seek out and kill the Sarafan Lord herself. Kain pursues her through the heavily-guarded wharves, slaughtering the Sarafan glyph knights. He eventually finds Umah, fatally wounded in her fight against the Sarafan knights. She begs him to give her some of his blood to restore her strength. Instead, he kills for her betrayal of him. As he walks away from her corpse, he feels a different kind of pain. Remorse at the death of a friend.

Kain reaches the Hylden city, the sole passenger on a transport shop strewn with the corpses of the crew. He is greeted by the Sarafan Lord, who again tries to kill him. As the Reaver is harmlessly deflected from Kain's armour, the Sarafan Lord sees that Kain wears the Nexus Stone. Kain also tells the Sarafan Lord that the Device lies in ruins, and that the Lord's plans are shattered. He tells Kain that it does not matter, as the Hylden armies will soon be able to enter the world and take it by martial force. The Sarafan Lord teleports himself away, and Kain continues his quest.

After shattering the gates of the Hylden City and journeying inside, Kain finds two human slaves discussing their plans to escape. As they see him they realise that he must be the one fighting the Hylden, and they revere him as a hero. Kain questions them, and learns more than just the location of the shielding device and the Gate. He learns that these humans are a race who have lived in the Hylden city for as long as they can remember. They have been slaves to the Hylden seemingly forever, and although they are desperate to overthrow the Hylden rule, they are not strong enough. Kain proceeds onwards towards into the City.

Kain cuts a bloody swathe through the Hylden ranks as he slaughters all in his path to the shielding device. When he reaches it he destroys both it and its mechanical guardian, and so the shield falls and Vorador and Janos Audron teleport themselves to the chamber. Vorador asks Kain what happened to Umah, and Kain tells him that he killed he because she was a traitor. Vorador threatens to kill Kain, but Janos tells them that they must put aside their differences until the Hylden are defeated. The Sarafan Lord teleports himself into the chamber, strikes down Vorador and Janos with magical bolts from the Reaver, and then teleports away. Kain is unharmed, and although Vorador is unconscious or dead, Janos recovers enough to initialise a spell to teleport Kain to a point very close to the Hylden Gate.

Kain reaches the Gate and finds the Sarafan Lord preparing to open it for his army. Kain challenges the Sarafan Lord, telling him that all his agents amongst the vampires are dead, even Umah. The Sarafan Lord informs Kain that Umah was not one of his spies. Kain attacks the Sarafan Lord in fury, but the battle is stalemated - As long as Kain wears the Nexus Stone, the Reaver cannot harm him; But if he takes the stone off to destroy the Gate, he will be vulnerable to the magic of the Reaver. Kain decides to risk his life to save his world. He removes the stone and casts it into the Gate, which immediately begins to collapse. The Sarafan Lord launches a frenzied attack on Kain, who is unable to withstand the power of the Reaver.

Kain's life is saved by Janos Audron, who descend into the Gate chamber to exact revenge on the Sarafan Lord for the years he spent imprisoned in the Device. The Sarafan Lord is too powerful for Janos, and casts him through the Hylden Gate into the Hell-world as revenge for Janos's magic that first banished the Hylden from the human world. However, though Janos is doomed, he was strong enough to knock the Reaver from the Sarafan Lord's grasp. Kain takes up the Reaver and once more does battle with the Sarafan Lord, this time able to overcome him and kill him. As the Reaver sates its dark thirst on the inhuman soul of the Sarafan Lord, the Hylden Gate finally collapses in on itself. Kain leaves the Hylden City as it burns, the Hylden dying as their lifeline is cut off. With the Soul Reaver returned to him, and his greatest enemy slain, Kain stands once again poised to take on the world.

"To the victor go the spoils. At last, Nosgoth would be mine."

Pre- Soul Reaver

Kain, now self-proclaimed ruler of Nosgoth, discovers ancient secrets in its decaying landscape. He finds the Chronoplast time-streaming chamber, and uses it to search the intricate webs of past and future in an attempt to predict his destiny. Time and again he sees his betrayal by Mortanius, the collapse of the pillars, the machinations of Moebius, and his eventual death at the hands of an otherworldly creature. He constructs an elaborate plan to avoid this, and maybe even to restore Nosgoth to its former glory…

Kain plunders the long-abandoned tomb of the Sarafan, finding the bodies of Melchiah, Zephon, Rahab, Dumah, Turel and Raziel, and the empty coffin reserved for Malek. In an act of calculated blasphemy, he breathes his vampiric gift into the corpses, and restores the Sarafan warriors to a life beyond death as his sons and lieutenants. Raziel, the first-born, is the strongest and closest to Kain. Kain creates a fortress, the Sanctuary of the Clans around the fallen Pillars, with the great throne from which he rules the world at the foot of the shattered Balance pillar.

The vampire lords become stronger over time, slowly evolving and becoming less human and more divine. Always, Kain is the one to evolve first, followed some years later by the lieutenants. Until, one day, Raziel surpasses Kain. He gains the gift of flight, growing bat-like wings. In a seemingly jealous act of egotistical sadism, Kain tears the new-grown wings from Raziel's back and orders him to be executed as a traitor - cast into the Lake of the Dead to burn for eternity in its immeasurable depths. And yet, this is not the end. For in the abyss lurks a creature of incalculable age and power that spares the soul of Raziel - The Elder God.

Soul Reaver:

"Become my soul reaver - my Angel of Death."

Despite being almost destroyed by the centuries languishing in constant torment in the depths of the abyss, Raziel is dragged back from the brink of oblivion. The Elder God greets him as he regains his consciousness and sanity. Raziel's form has been twisted cruelly, and he now exists as a wraith, a Devourer of Souls trapped in the Spectral realm of the world. The Elder God helps him to regain his strength and gifts him with the magic to move between the Spectral and Material realms. It also tells him about the world he now inhabits - Nosgoth has changed horrifically and decayed immeasurably over the centuries. Kain's parasitic empire has drained the life from the land, which now lies dead and barren. The vampires live on, but infected with the corruption that seeps through the land like a cancer. The clans are scattered, Kain vanished from sight, and his lieutenants sealed within fortress cocoons of their own creation. The Elder exhorts the newly reborn Raziel to seek out and slay the one who created him and tried to destroy him - Kain. Raziel seizes upon this quest with an unholy, self-righteous fervour, and sets out from the underworld to find Kain.

He encounters vampires, who have degenerated into scavenging wretches over time, and humans who cower within their fortress city, afraid to venture out into the sickened land around them. He also finds Kain's stronghold, the Sanctuary of the Clans, now a hollow and broken shell. He journeys past this, and to his own clan stronghold, seeking out his descendants. He sees nothing but shattered buildings and ruins. He realises that his clan must have been destroyed by Kain as well. His loathing for his creator grows ever deeper.

Eventually, Raziel discovers Melchiah, the youngest of Kain's brood, languishing in a tomb-like fortress. When Melchiah was created, he received only a small portion of Kain's gift. Although immortal, his soul was unable to support the flesh that housed it. Melchiah had survived only by taking the flayed skins from his human victims as well as their blood. Over the centuries, Melchiah's form had become inhumanly twisted and decayed. Raziel demands that Melchiah tell him where to find Kain. Melchiah moves to kill Raziel, but Raziel defeats him, crushing his distorted body in the workings of a vast machine. Melchiah's soul is at last released from its prison of flesh, but Raziel draws it in and consumes it. The soul of the vampire lord endows Raziel with a gift that allows him to gain entry to the Sanctuary of the Clans, where Kain awaits him.

Reaching the throne room, Raziel confronts Kain about his execution and the annihilation of his clan. Kain tells Raziel that he cannot hope to comprehend the decisions Kain has to make, and that he - and the whole of Nosgoth - has become useless. Kain draws the Soul Reaver, the deadliest weapon ever forged, and prepares to destroy his child. After a vicious fight, Kain knocks Raziel to the ground and plunges the Soul Reaver into his back.

The blade shatters like glass. Kain steps back, amazed, and then laughs hollowly as he sees how the future he had foreseen years ago is proceeding exactly as it was predestined. Kain disappears, to await Raziel at a later time. Raziel recovers, and sees an ethereal form of the Reaver floating in the air in front of him. The Elder God tells him it is the liberated soul of the sword, now a Wraith Blade, and Raziel grasps the hilt to wield it for himself. The blade binds itself inextricably to Raziel's arm, and becomes his symbiotic weapon. The Soul Reaver and the Reaver of Souls are joined.

Ariel appears to Raziel, greeting him and counselling him. She tells him that her soul can never be free until Kain is destroyed and the Pillars restored. The Elder God tells Raziel that his next quarry must be his brother Zephon, who lurks in an abandoned human Cathedral with his spider-like brood. The Cathedral was conceived by human architects as a weapon against the vampires, pipes and bellows elegantly constructed and tuned to scream out in a cacophonous choir of notes pitched to be lethal to vampires, thus ridding the land of the vampire plague. Zephon's brood slaughtered the human inhabitants of the cathedral and silenced the mechanism forever.

Raziel shatters the cathedral doors with the Soul Reaver, and journeys upwards to the lofty heights of its forbidding edifice. There he encounters Zephon, evolved to an insectile abomination, lurking within his cocoon of stone and mortar. The ancient vampire speaks with Raziel, and then seals off the exit from the chamber. Raziel attacks Zephon and kills him, setting alight to the web-like membranes that protected him. Zephon burns and dies, and Raziel consumes his soul and is endowed with another gift.

Under the guidance of Ariel and the Elder, Raziel travels to the tomb of the Sarafan, the once sealed tombs now lain open by the earthquakes that shattered the stones of Nosgoth. Delving deep into the crypts, Raziel discovers the empty coffins that bear his brothers' names - and his own. In a crushing moment of revelation, Raziel realises the extent of Kain's blasphemous act, raising him and his vampire brethren from the corpses of the Sarafan nobles who had spent their lives trying to rid the world of the vampire plague that had eaten away at it like a cancer.

Raziel continues onward through the tombs to the clan territory of his brother Rahab. Rahab's brood were extremely vulnerable to sunlight, but had evolved to compensate by developing resistance to water - normally lethal to vampires. Raziel makes his way to the inner sanctum of a flooded abbey, where he encounters Rahab, now evolved into a strange fish creature. After speaking with Rahab, Raziel destroys him by shattering the windows of the abbey and letting in the sunlight which is almost instantly lethal to Rahab. Raziel consumes the vampire's soul which endows him with Rahab's resistance to water.

The Elder God tells Raziel to travel to the northern wastes of Nosgoth, where he discovers and abandoned citadel, constructed by the clan of his brother Dumah. Upon breaching the gates, Raziel discovers the corpses of Dumah's brood, impaled on pikestaffs or burned almost to ash. The Elder God tells him that as Dumah had grown complacent in his perceived immortality, he had been unable to defend himself against an attack by the human vampire hunters, who had slaughtered his children. Raziel reaches the heart of the fortress and finds Dumah, impaled with iron stakes and slumped dead on his throne. He pulls the stakes out of Dumah's body, who returns to life after centuries as a ghostly spirit. Dumah thanks Raziel for restoring him to life, but Raziel tells him that he means to kill him and devour his soul. Dumah pursues Raziel through the twisting passageways of the fortress and is lured into the furnace room. Raziel sets off an explosion in the furnace that consumes Dumah and immolates him. Raziel absorbs Dumah's soul and is endowed with a gift that allows him to gain access to the Oracle's Cave in the furthest reaches of the Northern wastes. The Elder instructs Raziel to waste no time in breaching and exploring the maze, as Kain awaits him in its depths.

After weaving his way through the labyrinthine passageways, Raziel reaches the devices that allowed the time-streamer Moebius to see into the past and future. The first series of devices show Raziel's rebirth in the chamber of the Elder; his first battle with Kain and the destruction of the Soul Reaver; and his discovery of the Sarafan tombs. The other devices tell of events yet to come - Raziel fighting with Kain a second time; Raziel destroying Ariel with the wraith blade; and finally Raziel standing on a high crag overlooking Nosgoth, with the Wraith Blade coloured red as blood. Raziel is confused and awe-struck by the images, but he presses onwards to the Chronoplast chamber at the heart of the Oracle's Cave.

There he encounters Kain. Raziel swears to destroy him for all the agony and suffering he has caused throughout his existence. The two most powerful beings in the world meet in combat - Kain, the lord of vampires, the destroyer of Nosgoth, the corrupted Balance Guardian; and Raziel, the firstborn of Kain, the redeemer of Nosgoth, the Devourer of Souls. In an inverse of their first battle, Raziel strikes down Kain with the Soul Reaver. Kain manages to activate the Chronoplast device and escapes through the portal to a time long ago. Raziel curses him and follows, vowing not to rest until Kain lies dead at his feet.

Raziel is plucked from the time-stream by Moebius, as Kain had set the device to take him and Raziel back to before the fall of the pillars.

"Where Time is but a loop, a loose stitch in the universal cloth, a streamer might seize upon a chance, a fatal slip, and plunge the fate of planets into chaos."

Soul Reaver 2:

"Raziel. Redeemer and destroyer, Pawn and messiah - Welcome, time-spanned soul. Welcome to your destiny."

Raziel emerges from the time portal in the heart of the Sarafan Fortress, in a time before the collapse of the pillars, at the peak of Moebius's genocidal crusade against vampires. There he meets Moebius himself, the devious time-streamer. His weapon, the Wraith Blade, disappears inexplicably as the orb on Moebius's staff glows brightly. Moebius hastily explains that the orb weakens vampires, reducing their strength so the vampire hunters can more easily destroy them. Moebius tells Raziel that they have a common interest, as they both want Kain dead, and they form an unstable alliance. Raziel works his way through the maze-like Sarafan Fortress, slaughtering the vampire hunters who try to stand in his way. He discovers a room decorated with murals, showing the Sarafan knights, Melchiah, Zephon, Rahab, Dumah, Turel and a former incarnation of Raziel. Raziel looks upon the image of his lost nobility, the divine image that Kain destroyed by creating him anew as a vampire.

He reaches the chapel at the heart of the fortress, where he finds the tomb of King William the Just, and the broken Soul Reaver. Moebius's power over the Wraith Blade is released, and Raziel can once again use the blade. As he approaches the Reaver, he feels a strange sense of displacement, of vertigo, as if reality were being somehow distorted. He feels compelled to grasp the Reaver, and as he does so the Wraith Blade uncoils of its own accord, wrapping itself around the length of the Reaver. The blades combine, the Wraith Blade draining the life from Raziel to restore the broken Reaver. Raziel is all but destroyed by the power of the Wraith Blade, which seems to have been awakened by the meeting of the blades. No longer merely a weapon, the blade is now a living entity in itself, more powerful than ever before. The Soul Reaver's old hunger has returned, and the Wraith Blade now consumes the living souls of those it kills. But the more it feeds the more its hunger increases, and it can become so ravenous for life that it will drain the health of Raziel.

Wielding his newly-enhanced weapon, Raziel leaves the Sarafan stronghold and journeys to the Pillars of Nosgoth, as yet uncorrupted in this early era. On the way, he discovers a massive bronze door he is unable to pass through, sealed with elemental magic, and bearing a strange symbol. On reaching the Pillars, he finds his hated creator, Kain, and prepares to destroy him. Kain stalls for time, talking to Raziel. As he does so, Nupraptor finds the body of his love, Ariel, murdered by agents of the demon Hash'ak'gik. Nupraptor's psychic scream devastates the minds of the Circle of Nine, and Raziel is there to see the pillars turn black as the Guardians are corrupted. Raziel now listens to what Kain has to say - that when Kain was presented with the choice to damn Nosgoth or save it, both choices led to doom. If Kain had died, the entire race of vampires would have been wiped out; and as he had lived the Pillars had fallen and Nosgoth spiralled into corruption. He describes the decision as a two-sided coin, but both sides equally marred. However, there is a third way. Suppose, if you throw a coin enough times, one day it lands on its edge…

With this enigmatic final note, Kain leaves, and Raziel lets him go, resolving to trust no-one until he has found his own answers to the enigmas that surround his journey. He travels on beyond the pillars, and discovers an ancient door, emblazoned with an image of a blue-skinned, winged being, with clawed hands and fangs like Raziel's. The door opens at the touch of the Wraith Blade, and Raziel ventures into a network of caves that had not been opened for thousands of years. On the way, he encounters Shades, soulless, formless entities guarding the ancient passageways. The tunnels eventually lead him to a chamber beneath the pillars, decorated with strange murals depicting creatures so like Raziel. However, these creatures have the beauty of angels, where Raziel appears demonic. A fallen angel. The murals show scenes from a past age, the race of the Ancients, their apocalyptic war with the Hylden, the creation of the pillars, the blood curse, and the Guardian of the Reaver.

And here, beneath the Pillars, Raziel once again discovers the Elder God, seemingly younger and less powerful than in the last age of Nosgoth where Raziel first encountered it. It tells him that the murals are lies, the deluded creations of a dying race, seeking to manipulate Raziel. Having learned more of the world, Raziel is now less trusting of the Elder, and no longer fears its perceived power. The Elder exhorts Raziel to remember his righteous fury, to seek out Kain and end his shadow of a life once and for all. Raziel promises that if he does decide to slay Kain, it will be his decision, and his alone.

Raziel continues northwards, emerging from the caverns in a vast, sprawling swamp, stagnant waters choked with the decaying remains of trees and surrounded by swarms of blood-sucking insects. As he journeys through these swamps, he discovers a time-streaming chamber, evidently long-abandoned, the door sealed against the encroaching swamp. And, on a crumbling balcony high above, he recognises the shadowy figure of the vampire Vorador. After travelling further through the swamp, Raziel manages to get up to the balcony, but Vorador is long gone. However, he finds something else of interest. A door, sealed by magic, and emblazoned with strange symbols like those on the bronze door he had seen earlier. As before, the power of the Reaver unlocks this gate, and Raziel descends into the forgotten depths of the ruins. Although abandoned, the ruins are guarded by Thralls, decaying creatures of the living dead that wield ancient but still lethal weapons in eternal servitude to their long-dead masters. They are no match for Raziel and the power of the Reaver.

Exploring the ruins, Raziel is able to activate a strange device that creates what seems to be liquid shadow, a darkness so absolute that it is tangible. As Raziel approaches, the Reaver quickens of its own accord, and once more takes control of Raziel. The Reaver plunges itself into the heart of the device and drains it of power, drawing the elemental darkness into itself. The Reaver becomes imbued with Shadow, a power that Raziel can use by bathing the Reaver in one of the magical fonts situated throughout Nosgoth.

As he leaves the Dark Forge, Raziel encounters Vorador. The vampire interrogates Raziel, seeking to discover the reason for the coincidence of Raziel's arrival and the corruption of the pillars. He asks Raziel if he is vampire or demon, and if he is the cause of the corruption or the cure to it. Raziel refuses to answer, distrustful as he is of Vorador. The vampire sighs in resignation. He tells Raziel of his despair at the state of the world, his contempt for the humans and his hatred of the fact that he can do nothing about it. He tells Raziel that there is only one being who could explain to Raziel the truth of his destiny - but that he died centuries ago. Janos Audron, the last of the Ancients. Raziel vows to find Janos by whatever means necessary.

After speaking with Vorador, Raziel retraces his route through the caverns, emerging again in the chamber of the Elder God. It once again urges him not to believe the images depicted in murals and carvings, insisting that the Ancient race is merely trying to mislead and manipulate Raziel. Raziel wonders aloud if it is the Elder who is trying to manipulate him, to lead him along a doomed path. The Elder ends the meeting with a veiled threat.

Raziel returns to the Sarafan Fortress, seeking to use Moebius's time-streaming chamber to travel far into the past, to a time where Janos Audron still lives. However, he cannot breach the gates, as they are magically sealed. However, the power of the Shadow Reaver allows him to open the door that had previously been barred to him. Beyond is another ancient network of buildings, much like those in the Dark Forge, guarded by more of the Undead. Giant metal mirrors are arranged to direct and focus the sunlight, and Raziel is able to use them to activate another elemental forge. Once again, the Reaver takes control of Raziel, and plunges itself into the forge. It absorbs the light energy, becoming imbued with another elemental power. When he leaves the Solar Forge, Raziel is able to use the power of the Light Reaver to open the gates of the Sarafan fortress and go back inside. Before he can reach the time-streaming chamber, he passes through the Chapel again, and sees that some of the vampire hunters are already dead, their throats torn open and drained of blood. Only Kain would be bold enough to attack the fortress, and sure enough, the vampire lord waits for Raziel in the tomb of the dead King William. This time, Raziel is more willing to listen, but he still does not trust his creator.

Kain explains about Moebius's schemes, about the tyrant that was the Nemesis, and the assassination of King William that destroyed the tyrant but created one far worse in Moebius. He explains how the two Reavers coming together created a paradox that could shatter the time-stream and change history. He has seen this moment before, seen how Raziel would destroy him. And so, seemingly giving up in his battle against Fate, he picks up the Soul Reaver and hands it to Raziel. Again the twin blades are enjoined, again Raziel's body flows with the devastating power of the Soul Reaver. And he feels himself compelled to drive the blade into Kain's heart, destroy the evil of the vampire lord and restore Nosgoth. But killing Kain will not restore Nosgoth. He tries to release his grip on the Reaver, but he cannot. He is dragged forward by the weight of Destiny, barely able to resist the force that compels him to strike down Kain. But, somehow, he does. He turns his hand aside at the last second, missing Kain by an inch and instead driving the Soul Reaver into the sarcophagus of William the Just. Kain was destined to die, but with the Soul Reaver and the Wraith Blade brought together, a paradox was created that allowed history to be changed and destiny to be thwarted. Kain lives, and the time-stream splits in two. History and future reshuffle themselves, finding a way to accommodate this new change. Raziel walks on, seeking out the devious Moebius.

When he finds Moebius, the Time Guardian is clearly worried that the destiny he had so carefully prepared has been shattered. Desperate to regain control of the situation, he admonishes Raziel for his refusal to kill Kain, and frantically tries to persuade him to go back and face Kain again. Raziel is prepared for Moebius's cunning this time, and instead of following the deceptive advice of the Time-streamer, forces him to do his bidding for a change. Raziel threatens Moebius with the Wraith Blade, forcing himto activate the time-streaming device and send him into the past, to the era of the Sarafan and the time of the vampire Janos Audron.

However, Moebius sets the device to fling Raziel into the future instead, to a time after the collapse of the pillars when demons stalk the land. Moebius's mercenary army have diverted their efforts to fighting off the incursions of these demons, but with limited success. As he emerges from the time-streaming chamber into the broken and crumbling shell of the Sarafan fortress, Raziel realises he has been deceived. And this error in his judgement could prove fatal, as the fabric of reality is momentarily shattered by the arrival of two creatures from another, darker world. Demons, vile creatures seeking to slay Raziel, and able to pursue him into the Spectral realm as well as the Material. They are lethal foes, but Raziel defeats them, and continues through the decaying corridors of the abandoned fortress.

Though more demons seek to slay him, Raziel is able to reach the pillars, and his sight of them toppled by Kain's will carries a new horror for him as he now understands the significance of the collapse. Here he meets, once again, the spirit of Ariel, bound for eternity to the pillars due to Kain's refusal to restore them. Raziel interrupts her half-deranged reverie about the loss of Balance and the betrayal of Kain. He tells her that Kain was not the cause of the collapse of the Pillars, that his fate was preordained by the corrupted members of the Circle, Moebius and Mortanius. He tells her also that her imprisonment at the Pillars has only just begun, though she has been bound here for a century.

As Raziel returns to the subterranean grotto, he finds a scene of devastation. The Elder God has grown enormously, and has wrapped its tentacles around the shattered pillars. Raziel speaks with the Elder, which is furious about his refusal to kill Kain. Raziel openly defies the Elder, telling it that he will choose his own destiny. The Elder threatens Raziel again, promising to destroy him if he continues to disobey the Elder. Raziel looks at the Elder with disgust, seeing it now as a parasite, a cancer on the world. He leaves the chamber and continues into the swamps.

In this age, Raziel finds that the route through the swamps is no longer blocked. He can reach the northern reaches of Nosgoth, and the lair of the legendary Janos Audron. Though the ancient vampire can no longer be alive in this age, some information on him may still remain. Raziel travels through canyons and along precipitous cliffs until he reaches a cluster of houses huddled together in a narrow valley. Uschtenheim. The hamlet where Janos Audron sought his human prey. Although the populace were freed from their terror of the ancient vampire long ago by the crusades of the Sarafan knights, a new terror has seized the upon the benighted place. The gates are kept sealed night and day against the demons that stalk the surrounding wastelands, and the demon hunters guard the narrow streets.

Raziel cuts his way through the ranks of the demon hunters, and through the demons that appear and seek to slay him. Some distance beyond the hamlet, he reaches a precipice overlooking a dark lake, the other side of which is the unmistakable lair of Janos Audron. An aerie, accessible only by a balcony hundreds of feet above the still surface of the lake, evidently constructed so as to be reachable only by winged creatures. Below the balcony is an immense statue of one of the winged beings Raziel saw in the cavern below the pillars. But the Aerie is broken and ruined, utterly inaccessible to Raziel, and clearly and clue to the enigma that was Janos Audron is long gone. Raziel curses the devious machination of the Time-Streamer that stranded him in this blighted age of the world.

As Raziel scans the shattered façade of the mighty edifice, Kain appears, having crossed time to find and speak with Raziel. He warns Raziel of the unseen adversaries that conspire to destroy Nosgoth, and that they seek to eliminate Kain and Raziel as well. He tells Raziel that the alteration of history that Raziel caused by refusing to kill Kain has merely reshuffled the world, the time-stream flowing around the obstruction and finding the path of least resistance. He says that a greater change could lead to the creation of a fatal paradox, that could destroy them both, or obliterate the time-stream altogether. With this warning, Kain departs, leaving Raziel to find his own way onwards.

Raziel presses on, searching beyond the lake, for anything that might aid him. He discovers the entryway to another maze of ruins, and opens the gates with the power of the Reaver. He finds more of the murals and carvings of the Ancients, depicting the blood curse inflicted upon them by their vanquished enemies, the Hylden.

Beyond this lies a massive complex, constructed around a huge tower of stone carved into the form of a snake coiled around a spire. Beneath the spire are three tombs, containing mummified corpses with their hearts torn out. Raziel is able to restore the hearts to the bodies, and so release their souls and reactivate the Forge. He ascends on a stream of air to the very top of the spire, and there he plunges the Wraith Blade into the gaping maw of the serpent. Once more the Forge is drained of energy, the Wraith Blade imbued with the elemental power of storms. As Raziel leaves the Wind Forge, the door slams shut ahead of him, barring his progress. However, the door is cracked and crumbling, and a bolt of energy from the Storm Reaver shatters the barricade as if it were glass. Now, Raziel has the power to breach the entrance to the abandoned time-streaming chamber in the swamp, and so travel to another age of Nosgoth.

However, when he reaches the chamber, he realises that he has neither the means nor the knowledge to set the machine to take him to the time he wishes to reach. However, it is his only hope of escaping from this age, and so he must trust that the device is set to the correct destination. And so, Raziel activates the machine and casts himself into the arms of fate.

He emerges, to his amazement, in the time of the first Sarafan crusades, which seems just too convenient to be a coincidence. But Raziel does not know if the device was set by Moebius or by some more beneficial entity, and now, it does not matter. He seeks to speak with Janos Audron to uncover the secrets of his destiny, and, hoping that the ancient vampire still lives in this era, he sets out for the Aerie in the north.

On arrival, he discovers that the Aerie is no longer in ruins. This bodes well, as Raziel can only assume that the collapse of the Aerie immediately follows Janos's death. And so he seeks to find an entrance to the Aerie, managing to breach the structure with the power of the Storm Reaver. Once inside, he sees the incredible architecture contrived by the Ancients, the immense towers and vast arches that seem impossible to traverse on Raziel's tattered wings. However, with careful work, he is able to use the power of the Reaver and the magical devices left by the Ancients to construct a series of ramps and bridges that allow him to reach the heights of Janos's retreat. And so, he encounters the creature that lies at the heart of his destiny, the solution to the enigma, the first of the Vampires and the last of the Ancients.

Janos speaks with Raziel, telling him more of the history of the Ancients that Raziel had learned from the murals and carvings in the shrines. Janos says that he is the last survivor of his race, still suffering from the blood curse, and sustained only by his guardianship of the Reaver. For when nine of the Ancients were called forth to be Guardians of the Pillars, Janos was called as the tenth Guardian, the Guardian of the Reaver, protecting the awesome weapon for the time Raziel would arrive to claim it. The Reaver was forged for Raziel alone, he is destined to be the Messiah of the Ancients. Although the Hylden were banished from the world, the binding created by the Pillars will weaken over time, and must be secured by Raziel, with the power of the Reaver.

As Janos holds out the Reaver, Raziel feels an intangible sense of dread. As he hesitates in apprehension of what may befall him if he takes the sword, the doors of the chamber are breached. The Sarafan Knights followed the path Raziel created through the Aerie, and now, bearing the staff of Moebius, have come to slay the ancient vampire Janos Audron. Raziel prepares to destroy the Sarafan and save Janos from inevitable death, but Janos teleports Raziel to safety to prevent the Sarafan from harming him. Raziel finds himself in the Fire Forge, prevented from rescuing Janos by a door locked with the elemental power of fire.

Raziel eventually succeeds in activating the Fire Forge, and plunges the Wraith Blade into the searing heart of the furnace. The chamber is filled with a hellish fire that is drawn into the form of the Blade, imbuing it with elemental flame, its touch burning with infernal heat and reducing the bodies of its victims to smoke. Raziel opens the gates of the Fire Forge and rushes out to save Janos, but he is too late. The Sarafan Knights have torn Janos's heart from him, and leave him dying. Raziel sees the leader of the Knights, who clutches the still-beating heart of Janos, and recognises the cruel face of his former self, the image of nobility and virtue immortalised in stone in the Sarafan fortress. The Sarafan Inquisitor, Raziel.

The Sarafan flee, taking the Reaver and the heart of Janos Audron. The wraith Raziel speaks with Janos, promising that he will take the heart from the Sarafan and use it to restore Janos to life. He departs from Janos's retreat as it crumbles into rubble.

Pursuing the Sarafan warriors back to their stronghold, Raziel is caught in an ambush by creatures he had hoped never to see again. Demons. It seems that the fall of the pillars were not the sole cause of the demon incursions, as they have appeared in this time, five hundred years before the pillars' collapse. Raziel does not know if the demons were sent in vengeance for his disobeying of the Elder God's commands, or to delay him from reaching the fortress, but it does not matter. He tears them apart with the power and fury of the Reaver.

As Raziel once more passes through the chamber below the Pillars, the Elder greets him with ominous finality. Raziel, still burning with righteous anger at the murder of Janos, speaks to the Elder with obvious loathing and contempt. He wonders aloud if the Elder really did resurrect him, or if it was simply watching when he returned from the brink of death. He believes that the Elder does not know the true extent of Raziel's power or his destiny.

Upon reaching the Sarafan fortress, Raziel uses the Fire Reaver to shatter the locked gates, and immolates the few Sarafan warriors that try to stand in his path. He reaches an empty room, and discovers the Reaver lying, unguarded, on a pedestal. He goes to take it up, but once again the sense of dread grips him. He hesitates, fearing that to take up the weapon will seal his fate. The door behind him swings open, and Moebius and Malek confront him. He activates the wraith blade, but Moebius uses his orb to disable it. With no other weapon available, Raziel takes up the Reaver and moves to strike down Moebius. At the same time, Vorador breaches the Sarafan fortress and attacks the Circle of Nine.

However, the time-streamer had planned meticulously for this. Malek knocks Raziel back into the room, and Moebius locks the door from the outside. Raziel realises that the Reaver has linked itself to him. He is unable to release his grip on the hilt of the blade, and unable to flee to the spectral realm. He continues onwards, deeper into the fortress, vowing to find and kill Moebius. When he reaches the courtyard, he encounters two powerful Sarafan knights. Melchiah and Zephon, destined to become the sons of Kain. Raziel kills them without mercy, just as they had killed the vampires in their brutal crusades. The power of the Reaver leeches the blood from the veins of the warriors, replenishing Raziel's strength with every wound he inflicts. The power of the sword has made him invincible.

He continues, fighting and slaying the other Sarafan knights - Rahab, Dumah and Turel - until he encounters his former self, the Inquisitor Raziel. At that point, he renounces all that he believed about the Sarafan, and attacks the Inquisitor with a hellish frenzy.

As Raziel pulls the blood-sated Reaver from the desiccated corpse of his loathsome former self, Moebius senses the accumulated power of the Reaver and releases his hold on the Wraith Blade. The blade once again uncoils of its own accord, enjoining with the Reaver and becoming infused with the bloodthirst of the ancient weapon. The soul-thirst of the Wraith Blade intensifies terribly, but the only soul it can claim is Raziel's own. The enjoined blades, more powerful and more terribly alive than they could ever be separately, plunge themselves in ravening hunger into Raziel's body, draining his soul and his life, and steadily drawing his spirit into the steel shell of the Reaver. In the most terrifying revelation of all, Raziel realises that his destiny has at last turned full circle. So much is explained. The soul-devouring entity in the Soul Reaver is Raziel himself. When Kain tried to destroy Raziel with the Soul Reaver, it shattered because it could not consume its own soul. Raziel screams in agony as the Reaver drains the life from him. This is the future that had been foreseen by Kain, but with one critical difference - Kain himself still lives. He is able to breach the Sarafan Fortress and reach Raziel, and in the critical moment that Raziel's soul is at once inside and outside the blade a new paradox is created, weakening the time-stream and the immutability of fate. It is enough for Kain to change history by tearing the Reaver from Raziel's heart, saving the life of the wraith and utterly shattering the linear progression of history. The past is warped and distorted as the time-stream reshuffles itself to accommodate this new change, and as it does so, new and disturbing memories appear in Kain's mind. As Raziel fades back into the spectral realm, Kain shouts a last warning to him, that he must not restore Janos to life. Raziel sinks back into the spectral realm, near-fatally weakened, and he sees to his despair that the Wraith Blade still clings to him. Kain has merely postponed the inevitable, and Raziel knows that his dark fate still awaits him in a time yet to come.

"History abhors a paradox…"


End file.
